It is known in the art that dimmer structures depend for their operation on the components which are incorporated within the dimmer and on the operating conditions, particularly temperature of these units during the operation of the device. An early patent to Slater, U.S. Pat. No. 3,103,618 discloses a dimmer structure as well as the general operation of a dimmer. Later patents disclose structural details of dimmer units and these include disclosure of components included within dimmers as well as the construction of dimmer housings and circuitry and other control elements. A Balen patent, for example, deals with the emission of heat from the dimmer structure and other patents are known in the art which also deal with operating aspects of the dimmer units. Other patents which are concerned with structural aspects of dimmers and dimmer components include a U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,874 which teaches a structure by which an isolated mounting for a semi-conductor device is achieved in relation to a mounting strap of a dimmer switch structure. Also, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,212 concerns a mechanism for accomplishing ON-OFF switching within a dimmer unit. Both of these latter patents are assigned to the same assignee as this application.
This latter U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,212 patent was in fact an improvement over an earlier patent U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,936, concerned with dimmer ON-OFF switching and also assigned to the same assignee as this application.
Other patents concerned with the circuitry of dimmer type switches are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,447,067 and 3,493,848 and earlier forms of dimmer units are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,248,643 and 3,292,007 also assigned to the same assignee as this application.
In most of the structures disclosed by these patents, there is a structural or electrical improvement of a specific type. There is, however, no overall improvement in the arrangement, housing, assembly and organization of the several components on which reliable dimmer operation depends.